Daily LInks
1. Fashion Faces Recycling Fees Similar to Other Industries: So-called extended producer responsibility programs are one answer to textile waste. EPR programs charge producers tiny fees—often a fraction of a penny—on individual items to fund waste collection and recycling. – Read More on the WSJ
2. LVMH Faces Renewed Tax Scrutiny After Court Loss: France’s top court on Wednesday overturned a prior ruling that had deemed the 2019 inspections to be unjustified. The Cour de Cassation ordered the Paris court of appeals to reexamine the challenge brought by LVMH. – Read More on Bloomberg
3. Founder of WallStreetBets, which helped ignite meme stock frenzy, sues Reddit: He is seeking at least $1 million in damages for breach of contract and violations of his publicity rights, and a ban on Reddit’s use of WallStreetBets unless it reinstates him as senior moderator of the r/WallStreetBets subreddit. – Read More on Reuters
4. Apparel Industry Is Unprepared for New Sustainability Laws: In the US, Europe, and elsewhere, new laws are in the pipeline or on the books that, for the first time, require leading brands to come clean about pollution and waste. – Read More on Forbes
5. RELATED READ: Regulating the Industry: A Running Tracker of Fashion-Focused Legislation. The U.S. is seeing a rise in fashion-centric legislation that is worth keeping an eye on. – Read More on TFL
6. UK watchdog faces lawsuit from climate group over energy company prospectus: Britain’s markets watchdog acted unlawfully when approving documents that allowed an oil and gas company to list in London even though it had failed to properly describe climate-related risks, an environmental law charity alleged on Thursday. – Read More on Reuters
1. Secondhand luxuries hit shelves in communities: Despite the impact of COVID-19, China’s luxury market has been flourishing and is showing on new trends in recent years, especially secondhand luxury trading, supported by relatively lower prices and a large consumer base. – Read More on China Daily
2. London Is Losing Its Crown as a Luxury Shopping Destination: The U.K. government scrapped tax-free shopping for overseas visitors at the end of 2020. London is now the only major European shopping destination where tourists can’t get back the 20% value-added tax they pay on luxury purchases. – Read More on the WSJ
3. The billion-dollar question: what will Adidas do with all those Yeezys? The value of Yeezys is tied up in the branding rather than the raw materials. If they are simply used for other projects, it may be hard to recoup the majority of the investment. – Read More on the Guardian
4. RELATED READ: As Adidas Severs Yeezy Deal with Kanye West, What Happens Next? The undeniable link between the adidas-designed Yeezy sneakers and West, himself, poses relevant issues about the extent to which consumers associate the design of the Yeezy products – even without the Yeezy name on them – with adidas as opposed to with West. – Read More on TFL
5. Luxury’s ‘relentless bid’ shows no signs of stopping: “During difficult years, whether that’s for macroeconomic or geopolitical reasons, the LVMH group takes market share and progresses, which has been the case since 2019.” – Read More on Yahoo
6. RETRO READ (in light of Gucci-owner Kering’s woes, chatter about a merger with Cartier-owner Richemont is ratcheting up): Sorry, Louis Vuitton, Cartier Is the New Bling Kingmaker. Richemont chairman Johann Rupert holds the cards to consolidating the world of high-end fashion, watches & jewelry — and the industry is watching to see what hand he’ll play. – Read More on Bloomberg
1. Nordstrom’s Salvation Is in the Luxury Section: The family-run retailer has a chance to stave off an activist investor and burnish its brand by sticking to its roots — outfitting the aspiring rich — and targeting young shoppers. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. Delta workers’ lawsuit over Lands’ End uniforms narrowed to property damage claims: Employees of Delta sued Lands’ End, alleging that their Zac Posen-designed uniforms caused a host of health problems. – Read More on Biz Journals
3. RELATED READ: How Zac Posen-Designed, Land’s End-Made Uniforms Landed Delta in a Web of Ugly Lawsuits. The plaintiffs lodged claims of negligence, failure to label the uniforms, and violations of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, among others, against Land’s End. – Read More on TFL
4. As ChatGPT’s popularity explodes, U.S. lawmakers take an interest: ChatGPT, a fast-growing artificial intelligence program, has drawn praise for its ability to write answers quickly to a wide range of queries, and attracted U.S. lawmakers’ attention with questions about its impact on national security and education. – Read More on Reuters
5. Rescuing ESG from the Culture Wars: The key will be returning ESG to its narrow and technocratic intention — as a means for helping companies identify and communicate to investors the material long-term risks the company faces from environmental, sustainability and governance issues. – Read More on HBR
6. Few retail execs have what it takes to be CEO anymore—and it’s a troubling sign of a failing industry: Retail CEOs likely agree that the job is now tougher. In AlixPartners Disruption Index released in January, 86% of surveyed retail CEOs thought it was challenging to know which disruption to address first, whether inflation, tech advances, or other issues. – Read More on Fortune
1. Louis Vuitton Taps Pharrell Williams as Next Menswear Designer: Louis Vuitton has hired Pharrell Williams, the music producer and streetwear entrepreneur, to be its creative director of menswear, the company said Tuesday. Mr. Williams, 49, assumes the role previously held by Virgil Abloh, who died in November 2021. – Read More on the WSJ
2. AI song generators threaten ‘lasting harm’ to artists, warns Universal: Universal Music warned that AI-created music threatened “widespread and lasting harm” to artists and threatened a Napster-style crisis without robust copyright protections. – Read More on the Telegraph
3. Britain sets out legislation to regulate buy-now-pay-later credit: Britain on Tuesday will set out draft legislation to regulate “buy now pay later” credit, saying the sector posed potential harm to consumers without thorough affordability checks. – Read More on Reuters
4. The fashion industry’s reckoning with “forever chemicals.” The chemicals are popular in the fashion industry because they enable two attributes many people like their clothing to have: being water-repellent and stain-resistant. – Read More on Grid
5. Increased due diligence may tame consumer VC activity: Consumer-focused startups were historically valued primarily based on top line revenue growth, but investors are now significantly more focused on profitability which is putting pressure on certain business models. – Read More on Axios
6. Inflation, weak demand to weigh on US retail sales in 2023: Retail sales during the critical Nov. and Dec. holiday shopping season grew 5.3%, falling short of the NRF’s forecast of 6% to 8% growth. Recession fears rippling across the economy likely weighed on consumers who opted to pull back on spending. – Read More on S&P Global
1. Luxury brands diverge: Tapestry stock rises while Capri slides: “What you’re seeing with the Tapestry numbers is an indication of a portfolio of brands that has really focused on modernizing the way in which they behave and connecting with consumers who may be under some degree of pressure but are still looking to buy handbags, apparel, outerwear and footwear.” – Read More on CNBC
2. China’s luxury market tumbles after five-year hot streak: “In Macao, where Chinese can now travel to, the change is quite spectacular. Stores are full. It’s really come back [at a] very strong pace.” – Read More on Nikkei
3. Louis Vuitton’s Formula for World Domination: So far, Vuitton has upset the conventional wisdom of the luxury industry, where skittishness around bigger scale is widespread—a sharp contrast to sectors such as aviation, technology and banking. – Read More on the WSJ
4. A Lawsuit Against Big Oil Gets Personal: An activist group is going after Shell’s board members in court. The suit could make life unpleasant for the people who oversee big polluters. – Read More on the New York Times
5. Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com to launch ChatGPT-style product: The popularity of ChatGPT has prompted tech giants across the world to announce their own rivals. Google announced its AI chatbot tech called Bard, as part of a “code red” plan to respond to the challenge posed by ChatGPT. – Read More on CNBC
6. The Google antitrust lawsuit has promise: The lawsuit focuses on what we don’t go looking for and see anyway: advertisements. The argument is relatively straightforward: Google dominates this market by playing a key role in the technology at every point along the “ad stack.” – Read More on the Washington Post
1. 2022 retail store opening rumble: Robust e-commerce platforms helped retailers manage the pandemic. However, both retailers and consumers realized the limitations of doing business entirely online, and once the height of the pandemic passed, shoppers returned to stores in hordes. – Read More on Axios
2. Shell’s board of directors sued over climate strategy in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit: Environmental law firm ClientEarth, in its capacity as a shareholder, filed the lawsuit against Shell, alleging that 11 members of Shell’s board are mismanaging climate risk, breaching company law by failing to implement an energy transition strategy that aligns with the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement. – Read More on CNBC
3. Adidas forecasts high single-digit sales decline in 2023: The sporting goods maker, which ended its business partnership with Kanye West last year, said not selling its existing Yeezy stock could reduce revenue by around 1.2 billion euros in 2023 and operating profit by around 500 million euros to around break-even. – Read More on Reuters
4. Does Shein Use Banned Xinjiang Cotton? US Senators Want to Know: In a letter dated Thursday, Republican Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Democrats Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island sought details about the company’s procurement process and its links to Xinjiang. – Read More on Bloomberg
5. RELATED READ: As Shein Looks to Lobbying, What is Driving Corporate Political Strategy? At the core, companies spend on lobbying and political contributions when they “have vested interests and operations in a state” – or on a federal level – “that are subject to regulation.” – Read More on TFL
6. Italy inflation-adjusted retail sales fell in 2022: Italian retail sales increased in value terms but decreased in volume in 2022 compared to the previous year, with consumers suffering from high inflation, data showed on Wednesday. – Read More on Reuters
1. Balenciaga Partners with National Children’s Alliance Following Ad Controversy: The Kering-owned brand said the 3-year program with the Washington DC-based not-for-profit organization will help train almost 2,000 professionals specialized in dealing with child abuse. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. Beijing pushes new regulatory measures to boost e-commerce activities in nation’s capital as online retailers struggle with weak demand: The initiative is expected to make it easier for online merchants to set up bricks-and-mortar stores in the Chinese capital to help increase sales. – Read More on SCMP
3. With Growth Top-of-Mind, Luxury Brands Focus on Digital Goods and Virtual Experiences: Luxury brands are attempting to capitalize on this opportunity by easing their once-stringent brand parameters and taking an “omnichannel approach” to reaching the affluent, and digitally savvy, Chinese consumer. – Read More on Retail Touch Points
4. Why Hong Kong luxury sales won’t suddenly rebound now mainland Chinese shoppers are back: Logistical issues surrounding cross-border travel with mainland China, closed-down stores, and the rise of shopping in Hainan all hamper a speedy recovery. – Read More on SCMP
5. Tesco and Lidl square off in yellow on blue trademark row: Tesco and its German discount rival Lidl traded allegations of copying brands and deceiving customers at London’s High Court on Tuesday in a dispute over Britain’s biggest retailer using a yellow circle on a square blue background. – Read More on Reuters
6. Large global M&A deals off to slow start in 2023: “Regulators are not succeeding and blocking a lot of deals, but they certainly, I think, around the world have been a little bit slower to sort of approve deals and let them flow through.” – Read More on S&P Global
7. Michael Kors owner Capri shares plunge after revenue falls across the retailer’s luxury brands: Revenue fell across the company’s luxury brands, which also include Jimmy Choo and Versace, dragged lower by slowing traffic in China. – Read More on CNBC
1. Why fabric fraud is so easy to hide: With complex, fragmented supply chains that sometimes rely on a literal paper trail, where each step in the chain might happen in a different country, it’s easy to see how mislabeling can happen. – Read More on BBC
2. Meta settles U.S. lawsuit over infinity-logo trademark: Meta has agreed to resolve a trademark lawsuit brought by blockchain nonprofit Dfinity Foundation over Meta’s infinity-symbol logo, according to a joint filing in San Francisco federal court. – Read More on Reuters
3. RELATED READ: Meta is still facing a separate trademark case over the Meta word mark, with a smaller (but older) company named Meta, accusing the Facebook and Instagram-owner of reverse confusion. – Read More on TFL
4. Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha, luxury’s biggest consumers by 2030: The luxury market’s consumer base will reach 500 million by 2030, according to Bain. – Read More on SCMP
5. China’s luxury market shrank 10% in 2022: The luxury market grew 42% annually between 2019 and 2021 but its fortunes changed in 2022, after China doubled down on stamping out COVID-19 with city-wide lockdowns. – Read More on Reuters
6. Mickey Mouse Is About to Enter the Public Domain. Can Anyone Actually Make Money off Him? “They do have TM protection in connection with the early version of Mickey in connection of at least certain items of clothing and maybe other goods and services as well.” – Read More on the Observer
1. Chinese Investors Hunt Globe for Strategic Luxury Market Acquisitions: Chinese buyers are showing a greater interest in acquiring heritage brands that are no longer active but do provide a shortcut to showcasing heritage. – Read More on Jing
2. Excess stock a challenge for half of U.S. retailers: “Excess stock is a huge issue for U.S. merchants at this time of year. The key to avoiding inventory waste is by forward planning and having rapid response software that allows retailers to pivot quickly to fill order gaps and ditch items which are not selling.” – Read More on RCE
3. Footwear’s Trendy Comeback: Retail. On’s co-CEO said wholesale gives the company access to the “right customer quicker and at a bigger scale,” while its direct channel gives it a more “intense and direct connection” with its consumers. – Read More on the WSJ
4. Yuga Labs Reaches Settlement in Bored Ape NFTs Trademark Lawsuit: Yuga Labs, the parent company of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT project, has reached a settlement with Thomas Lehman, who built websites and smart contracts for Ryder Ripp’s copycat project “RR/BAYC.” – Read More on Yahoo
5. How designers are leveraging tech to apply the brakes to fast fashion: Consumers are becoming more conscious of the costs of fast fashion – and so are manufacturers as they reform their supply chains to increase transparency and, at the same time, avoid over-production and waste. – Read More on Tech Monitor
6. Amazon swings to a loss for 2022 as sales from e-commerce drop in Q4: Amazon’s revenue growth increased, even as its core e-commerce business came under pressure from growing recession fears. – Read More on Modern Retail
1. Coachella sues D.C. ‘Moechella’ music festival in trademark fight: The suit filed in federal court this week alleges that the D.C. pair “are intentionally trading on the goodwill” of the Coachella name and creating “confusion” by suggesting a nonexistent affiliation. – Read More on the Washington Post
2, Teens feel peer pressure to buy luxury goods endorsed by K-pop stars: “Consumers generally choose luxury goods that meet their unique tastes and preferences. But Koreans tend to make a safe choice by purchasing the most popular ones. To make better decisions, they often rely on celebrities who are associated with luxury brands.” – Read More on Korea Times
3. Why Amazon Marketplace didn’t survive in China: Amazon entered the China market in 2004 through a $75 million acquisition of Joyo.com, an online book and media seller. The joint venture rebranded to Amazon China at the domain Amazon.cn in 2011. – Read More on CNBC
4. Tiffany & Co. x Nike shoe collaboration divides social media: The two announced a collaboration on January 31 that will include a specially designed Air Force 1 sneaker and sterling silver accessories. The combination of the two brands marks the 40th anniversary of the Nike shoe silhouette. – Read More on SCMP
5. Billionaire Cucinelli Sets Profits Cap to Thrive for Centuries: In an industry that posts eye-popping margins, his namesake luxury cashmere house pours profits into better pay and working conditions. Investors, so far, appear to be on board. – Read More on Bloomberg
6. Kering recruits Estee Lauder exec for push into cosmetics: “We are building this new area of expertise within our Group to ensure that our brands can fulfill their potential in this category,” group Managing Director Jean-Francois Palus said. – Read More on Reuters